October 2 is the anniversary of when fighters in the 1944 Warsaw Rising against Nazi occupation bowed down to the inevitable and laid down their guns.

After sixty-three days of fighting and confronted with a lack of weapons and food, the command of the uprising decided to lay down arms in the face of impossible odds.

It is estimated that about 200,000 civilians with 16,000 insurgents were killed and 6,000 badly wounded.

Following difficult and long negotiations with Nazi command, a formal signing of the capitulation act took place at two in the morning. A massive exodus of Varsovians followed. Over 16,000 inhabitants were exiled from the capital and transported to transitional camps.

The uprising began on 1 August 1944. It was intended to last for only a few days until the Soviet Red Army reached the city. The Soviets did fight their way to the Praga area on the right bank of the River Wistula but refused to try and enter the city and assist Poles fighting the Nazis.

Historians have debated why the Soviet army stayed over the river. Most in Poland believe that Stalin was happy to see the resistance crushed as this would make it easier for Poland to be subsumed into the Soviet sphere of influence after the end of WW II.

The Rising left the left bank of Warsaw completely  destroyed as the Germans systematically leveled the city, block by block. (ab/pg)